Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how LTTE fighters in exile in France live within their new lifeworlds. Transitioning from a public role to an individualized and anonymous life path, the fighters live between the need to build a civilian life and the nostalgia for the struggle for independence of their homeland.

Paper long abstract:

Based on extensive fieldwork among former LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) fighters exiled in France, this paper addresses the process of reintegration into civilian life in exile. These fighters, both men and women, had participated in the war for the independence of the Tamils in the north-east of Sri Lanka for about a decade (1983-2009).

During military training and service in the LTTE, the fighters formed strong bonds, becoming a collective subject where previous class and caste differences were nullified. Gender relations also shifted towards greater equality. However, during demobilization and exile the reverse process occurs: what was once a closely-knit community begins to disintegrate, and the life journeys of the fighters become individualized. With demobilization comes the end of their political careers: nationalist associations in the diaspora close their doors to them, and the Tamil community does not offer them any social recognition.

This paper aims to examine two aspects of the transition from military to civilian life: on one hand, the rebuilding of a civilian life in exile, including finding employment, starting a family, etc.; on the other hand, the continued identification as an LTTE fighter, not regretting the choices made, and experiencing nostalgia for a life where they held significant social status and were dedicated to what was most important to them: the fight to build the Tamil nation. In other words, the fighters are experiencing what Arendt (1974) refers to as "inner emigration", the abandonment of a public life to withdraw into their own interiority.

Paper short abstract:

This paper takes an 'anthropology of security' approach to examine the afterlife of war in Colombia. It shows how the (in)security situation in rural conflict areas is shifting rather than improving and discusses peasant strategies to archive a ‘dignified life’.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes an 'anthropology of security' approach to examine the continuum of violence in post-conflict societies and the afterlife of war from the perspective of marginalized peasants. Security issues are at the heart of processes of peace – not only, but also in Colombia. The termination of hostilities and reintegration of combatants is aimed at increasing physical and public security in conflict regions. Peace measures such as land restitution and legalization are designed to reduce conflict causes and insecurity, notably in the rural areas. Based on multi-temporal ethnographic fieldwork, the paper shows how the (in)security situation in the conflict area around the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá region is shifting rather than improving with the current peace process. At the same time, the peasant population developed peace and security strategies that have enabled them to survive the armed conflict and which they adapt to the transforming (in)security situation. The strategies are based on decades of violent everyday experiences and peasant notions of peace and security which are conceptualized in emic terms of a ‘dignified peasant life’.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses processes of disengagement and migration through the life stories of former Kurdish rebels. By zooming into their personal trajectories, this paper asks how former rebels navigate the many borders they encounter as they leave the armed struggle and rebuild a civilian life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses processes of disengagement, migration and bordering through the life stories of former Kurdish rebels. By zooming into the personal trajectories of former rebels who have disengaged from armed liberation movements and live as refugees in Europe or in Iraqi Kurdistan, this paper highlights patterns of post-revolutionary migration, the gendered process of demilitarisation and re-entering into civilian life. As such, it offers new perspectives on the long-term embodied reverberations of political violence. This paper focusses on former PKK members, both women and men, who went from being revolutionaries and sometimes powerful commanders, to ‘traitors’ to the cause, and ultimately to asylum seekers or refugees. The Kurdish context is particularly interesting, as full independence, or ‘Democratic Confederalism’ in the case of the PKK, has not been reached. Therefore, rebels are leaving their movement mid-conflict and are not bound by any mediated peace processes or formal Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration (DDR) frameworks, and instead transition back into civilian life with little to no assistance, while still being criminalized by both their country of origin as well as the European border regimes. The paper asks how do former rebels remake their lives post-revolution? Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Europe and Iraqi Kurdistan, this paper provides an intimate account of ‘life after the party’, exploring the everydayness of the leaving process. Conceptually, the paper is situated on the intersection of gender, conflict and migration studies and speaks to debates in social anthropology and feminist international relations, particularly critical military studies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores gender violence and the dismissal of mother-victims’ call for justice during Spain’s second transition. It analyses how the continuum of 'invisible violence' of child theft during and after Franco prevents justice for women and the recuperation of the ‘living disappeared’.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the continuum of gender violence and trauma, criminal prosecutions and the recuperation of the stolen children in post-Franco Spain. Since 1936, an estimated number of at least 30.000 children were robbed from their parents and sold for adoption. The practice of systematic child theft started during the Civil War and was further promoted during the Franco dictatorship as part of the attempted annihilation of left-wing culture. Obscured by the pact of silence and amnesty laws that marked the transition to democracy, the practice continued far into the 1990s as an organised crime facilitated by the Church, political, medical and judicial entities. Today, victimized mothers, lawyers and judges struggle for the recuperation of the ‘living disappeared’ and seek to facilitate identity recuperation, recognition, support DNA testing and guarantee their rights to criminal prosecutions. But even some of those asking for exhumations and historical clarification in post-Franco Spain dismiss these crimes against women, claiming that “las locas” (the crazy ones) just can't get over the death of their children at birth.

In this paper, I present my fieldwork with human rights lawyers and mother-activists from ABEROA and ‘Bebes Robados‘ in Andalucía and the Basque Country and their challenging pursuit for the recuperation of the stolen children. I analyse how “invisible violence” in the aftermath of dictatorships impede gender justice and how stigma of motherhood and the socially learned nexus of authoritarian structures and misogyny prevent recognition of women’s rights and the recovery of the stolen children and their identities.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the afterlives of colonial weapons in memory practices in the Rif, Morocco. I analyze how these colonial weapons circulate in competing representations of the (post)colonial past by state and non-state actors in contemporary local and (trans)national settings.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the afterlife of colonial weapons in memory practices in the Rif region (northern Morocco). Drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork, it explores how state and non-state actors use these weapons to mark and revive the memory of the Rif in the present. In the early twentieth century, the Rif was the site of intense colonial violence, with Spanish troops occupying the region, and fighting local Berber tribes in the Rif War (1920-1926). After their defeat in 1921, the Spanish colonial army resorted to aerial bombardments with chemical weapons, brought from German stockpiles, to stifle the revolting tribes. This poisoned farmland, seawater, and wells, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians. Although traces of the war were carefully erased by the Spanish, remnants still appear in construction sites, agricultural fields, and fishing waters, with toxic residues degrading the environment and public health. The legacy of this colonial violence has led to the emergence of Berber activists demanding the (inter)national recognition of the crimes committed under the Spanish protectorate. These efforts include legal battles for access to Spanish and Moroccan military archives, to study the long-term effects on public health and the environment, and to remove toxic residues from local ecosystems. The relics of colonial warfare are also tracked for display in museums, depots, or private collections, as well as becoming subjects of popular culture, such as films and music. I analyze how these colonial weapons circulate in competing narratives of the (post)colonial past in contemporary local and (trans)national settings.